This invention relates to improvements in drawer slides of the type which permit a drawer to be selectively pulled out from opposite sides of a support body such as a desk, file cabinet, service vehicle and the like.
Two way or double pull drawers of various types have been known and used for some time and may be classified generally as being two member or three member assemblies. The two member assembly has one member fixed to the frame or support body for the drawer such as a desk or cabinet and a movable member attached to the drawer and to the fixed member. With this arrangement, the drawer cannot be held regidly when the mounting point connecting it to the slide is moved more than one half the length of the drawer and thus there is the inherent disadvantage that only approximately one half of the drawer space is accessible from either side of the support body. Examples of two member slides appear in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,565,784 and 2,599,865.
The three member assembly, as is well known, permits extension of the drawer to nearly one hundred percent of its length and the present invention is directed to improvements in this type of slide assembly. The three member assembly also uses one member fixed to the support body and a movable member attached to the drawer but includes a third member slidably arranged intermediate and operably connected to both of the other two members. Examples of the three member slide assembly are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,736,108 and 2,914,370.
Notwithstanding the advantage of the three member slide in permitting substantially one hundred percent extension of the drawer, it has been our observation that malfunction of the slide capability of the intermediate third member is commonly experienced with the result that the drawer frequently cannot be fully retracted. Such malfunctioning is found to exist in various latching and locking arrangements generally found mounted within the support body but exteriorly of the slide assembly itself so as to require considerable adjustment and alignment.
With the above observations in mind, one of the important objects of the present invention is to provide an improved and trouble free operating three member two way travel drawer supporting slide assembly.
More particularly, it is an object herein to provide a drawer slide assembly of the above class that consists generally of an outer elongated channel section for fixed attachment to a support body, a central channel section slidably mounted within the channel of the outer section and an interior section slidably mounted within the channel of the center section and fixedly attached to a drawer to be moved into and out of a support body together with an improved arrangement of movable stops designed to facilitate and assure the proper movement of the central section relative to the outer and interior sections to permit substantially full extension and trouble free retraction of the drawer relative to respective opposite sides of the support body.
Another object herein is to provide a drawer slide assembly as characterized in which all components operable to effect or control the sliding movement of the several sections and particularly the central section are arranged within the confines of the overall assembly and no control elements attached to the support body for such purposes are required.
The foregoing objects and such further objects as may appear herein, or be hereinafter pointed out, together with the advantages of this invention will be more fully discussed and developed in the more detailed description of the accompanying drawings.